Caroline Ganley was not “the first working-class woman with elementary education elected as an MP” (Letters, 3 November). My great, great aunt, Margaret Bondfield, had a “brief and broken elementary schooling” of four years, according to Mary Hamilton’s biography, but was elected in 1923 and became a cabinet minister in 1929. Her eventual support for cuts to unemployment benefits fixed her reputation for ever as someone who betrayed the workers. Right in the middle of the war she produced a report on poverty, recommending, among other things, child allowances, nursery schools, a minimum wage and a national health service. As someone who for over 60 years was part of the drive for changes from which we have all benefited, that’s not a bad list.
Roger Cairns
Swannington, Leicestershire
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